


The Line is Fine (The Silver-Top Remix)

by sheafrotherdon



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: M/M, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-02
Updated: 2006-04-02
Packaged: 2017-10-11 23:23:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/118302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheafrotherdon/pseuds/sheafrotherdon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A remix of the lovely Kabeyk's <a href="http://kabeyk.livejournal.com/14558.html">The Line is Fine</a> in which Sirius falls through the veil, Remus unwisely sleeps with someone else, and all hell breaks loose over a bottle of silver-top milk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Line is Fine (The Silver-Top Remix)

It was easier than he imagined, to live when his impulse was to atrophy – to focus on nothing but his next obligation and so keep moving, dutifully quiet. No one noticed, and for that he was grateful – grateful to a lifetime of half-smiles and thoughtful silences that now became a mask; to the collective, unspoken faith of others ( _Remus will cope_ ).

He moved out of Grimmauld Place – found a flat of surpassing ugliness, furnished it sparsely and called it home. He did what he was ordered, worked by rote, ate when Molly chided, laughed when occasion made the demand. More than once he fell asleep with a warm body wound around his own, and though he longed to be what another needed, those years were long since past.

It wasn't the life he had hoped for, a calendar of unremitting emptiness, but it worked well enough until the morning Sirius showed up at his door.

"Mornin' Remus," he crowed, grinning cheerfully, waving the bottle of milk in his hand. "Fancy a cuppa?"

Remus stared.

"Bit unexpected, I grant you, what with – " he gestured dismissively "- the veil and all that, but I showed that fucker what's what." He waggled his eyebrows, clearly delighted with himself. "C'mon mate, I'm bloody parched. Do you know how long it is since I –"

"Tea," Remus interrupted, stunned and unsure.

"Yeah, and none of that fancy muck either. If you went Darjeeling again while I was gone, we're having words." Sirius stepped inside and shut the door behind him. "Come on then, make haste."

"Tea," repeated Remus. Months of absence, bitter as bile, and a bottle of milk wielded against such encompassing loss – silver top when the bastard knew he liked semi-skim.

Sirius arched an eyebrow. "You just wake up?"

Remus shook his head.

"So what's your problem?" asked Sirius, incredulously, scratching the back of his neck with the air of one who was greatly put-upon.

"My problem?" Remus narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah!" Sirius spread his arms as wide as he could in the narrow hallway. "Here I am, back from the who-even- _knows_ -what-the-fuck-that-was, and I even brought milk! And you're just standing there, great gormless lump, repeating every last thing I say to you and I . . " Sirius peered at him. "You get spell-shock while I was gone?"

Remus stepped forward and shoved him, hard.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. " _Shoving_?" He set down his milk on the scuffed linoleum.

"You fucking piece of shit," said Remus, anger beginning to lick at his spine.

Sirius watched him for a second. "Yeah?" He eyed him for a second. "Well you're a pussy." He shoved him back.

"Selfish fucking prick," Remus spat, shoving him hard enough that he stumbled backwards into the door.

"Oh it's on," muttered Sirius, and launched himself, smacking Remus hard in the stomach as he tumbled them both to the floor, tangling his fingers in Remus' hair and yanking hard.

"You fight like a _fucking_ girl," Remus snapped, jamming his elbow hard into Sirius' abdomen and slamming his head against the floor.

"Least I haven't been _fucking girls_ ," Sirius yelled, fingers caught in Remus' shirt as he clawed and punched, kicking wildly.

"YOU WERE FUCKING DEAD."

Sirius rose up above him and socked him in the jaw. "So you figured you'd just _fuck my fucking cousin_? I SAW THE WHOLE THING."

Remus made an incoherent noise of rage and threw Sirius off. "You leave her out of this," he managed, getting in his own punch, thrilling as Sirius' head snapped back and his lip split.

" _You_ didn't," Sirius spat, twisting and clawing, biting as Remus shoved a hand into his face. "You don't feel a _fucking_ THING for her, you squibbish, pus-filled . . ."

Remus grunted trying to twist away, Sirius' knee connecting with his thigh. "It's your fucking fault! ALL OF IT. You had to be the _fucking hero_ . . ."

"Couldn't just own up to fucking _missing me_ . . ."

"YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT."

"Oh yeah?" Sirius dodged a punch and yelped as Remus twisted his arm behind his back. "I know I haven't seen you this fucking angry since _fifth fucking year_."

"And you were a prick THEN," Remus yelled, breath coming hard as he thought of those furious, fumbling months – anger and arousal a heady mix as they punched and kissed and insulted their way toward admitting they liked one another.

"Yeah?" Sirius was red-faced and squirming, laying punches wherever he could. "Least you _felt_ something then – least you _RISKED_ something then, least you didn't _HIDE_ like a fucking coward . . . "

Remus swore vehemently and kneed him squarely in the balls, shoving him aside as Sirius wheezed desperately, hands at his crotch, gasping in pain. "You – " Remus scrambled away, sat with his back against the wall, wiping a hand over his face, unsurprised to find his own lip bleeding. He struggled for breath, rage and grief a twisting, white-hot pain inside his chest. "I thought you were _fucking dead_." He pulled in an uneven breath, closing his eyes and desperately trying to will himself calm. "I thought . . ." His voice plead traitor and broke despite his efforts.

Sirius winced as he tentatively uncurled, sitting up, panting softly. He dragged himself over to where Remus sat, and set a hand on his knee. "But I'm not."

"You swear?"

"I swear on, uh . . . something important . . . " Sirius looked around. "On you?"

Remus half-laughed, a broken, aching sound that hurt far worse than his newly blossoming bruises, and let his forehead fall against Sirius' shoulder. "I thought you were dead," he whispered again, tremors of grief alive in his hands as he fisted Sirius' robes between his fingers, holding on with all he had.

"I know." Sirius wrapped his arms around him, gathered him up and pressed a kiss to his dishevelled hair. "But I couldn't leave you. Who would you fight if I went away?"

"Fucker," Remus choked. "You _fucking_ fucker."

"S'me," Sirius whispered. "But at least I brought milk."


End file.
